300

[Corbin Law]

i do concur

that story seems all too familiar to me

might it be..."good night moon" nooo. thats too political,

probably something more along the lines of "if you give a mouse a cookie"

i thought the funniest part of the movie was when they were stabbing the wounded

andhes just standing there eating an apple before he goes to talks to xarxes

and hes all like, im just gonna try to be civil, the best way is always with

diplomacy.

[stfuken]

Oh and anybody see any parallel between Leonidies and GW Bush?

I called that when I saw it last night. I said bush should just tell people he's goin for a walk.. all over the middle east.

[C0C0]

what i liked most about the movie apart from the hot dudes was the fact that every single frame was well composed

[goldengloves]

It was a visual masterpiece. I was very impressed and I'm definitely going to try and catch it on imax.

[NESK]

england: as a buff of this sort of thing what did you think of the historically accurate crab humans, mutant rhinos and freakish humpback trolls?

everything about this movie was so over the top that i actually thought i was trippin balls off mushrooms while i was in the theatre. i guess since its a frank miller adaptation i shouldnt fault the film for that. but i really thought this was awful.

[goldengloves]

It was based on the book more than the actual historic battle, thus the over the top plot, characters, and cinematography.

[xcoldricex]

wouldn't bush be more like xerxes - trying to finish up a job his dad didn't finish?

[chronoaug]

I've written too many papers, read too many books and studied antiquity and early medieval periods too much to not be bothered at times by historical innaccuracies. That stuff is my educational life.I'm not as huge a fan as sin city and that type of movie as much as others. Thank god for hbo's Rome. I think i'll still try to see this one of these days.

[beast]

I've written too many papers, read too many books and studied antiquity and early medieval periods too much to not be bothered at times by historical innaccuracies. That stuff is my educational life.I'm not as huge a fan as sin city and that type of movie as much as others. Thank god for hbo's Rome. I think i'll still try to see this one of these days.

Its a given that this and other Hollywood blockbusters will have no resemblance to anything close to fact.

Just look at Troy and you can see what I mean.

[beast]

Putting aside the historical inaccuracies, this is a bad flick.

1. After a while, I got sick of the sepia tone cinematography. Guess they needed it to hide the cheap sets and what looked like bodysuits on the Spartans.

2. The sets look cheap. The mountain looks fake, the sea where Xerxe's ships were destroyed looked like low grade CGI and hotgates looks like a poorly done set.

3. The music sounds like a rip off of Black Hawk Down's. IN fact I would prefer the old Nine Inch Nails drum track they used with the movie in the trailers.

4. The scenes of Leonidas' wife and son in the wheat field is ripped off from Gladiator.

5. The film is strangely catered to fans of the graphic novel. Why? That is not even a cult comic. I was expecting Delios to give a speech about how every greek refused to let an old man sit during a conference, but the Spartans rose as one to let him sit. I was also expecting Stumbelios. Guess we will see that in the director's cut.

6. Also, the film cant decide whether it should be based on a true story or some fantasy flick. The unmasked Immortals and trolls look like Lord of the Rings rejects. I was half expecting the black robe evil King to turn up to fight Leonidas and his flynig lizard.

It will be better to make it more human, so we can root for Leonidas thinking reinforcements will come but we are saddened by his ultimate sacrifice.

7. Why did the remaining Spartans allowed themselves to be slaughtered so easily by arrows in the end? After slaughtering thousands of Persians, I would expect them to go down fighting, taking down as many Persians as they can.

8. If they wanted to do a film on Battle of Thermophylae, they should just adapt Steven Pressfield's book. No less inaccurate but at least thats entertaining.

9. All in all, great flick if you have never watched much movies. But I guess many Americans do not because this made like US$70 million over the weekend and this flick may just make Gerald Butler the next big thing.

[Tiranis]

Putting aside the historical inaccuracies, this is a bad flick.

1. After a while, I got sick of the sepia tone cinematography. Guess they needed it to hide the cheap sets and what looked like bodysuits on the Spartans.

2. The sets look cheap. The mountain looks fake, the sea where Xerxe's ships were destroyed looked like low grade CGI and hotgates looks like a poorly done set.

All filmed in a hangar with bluescreen. All CGI.

More importantly this was never meant to be a serious film on the matter, this was never meant to be another Gladiator, this was never meant to have an enjoyable story. This was a movie adaptation of a comic book, not a movie adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae -- oh and anything by Frank Miller has a cult following.

For what you were expecting to see you clearly picked the wrong movie.

[Brinbro]

Putting aside the historical inaccuracies, this is a bad flick.

1. After a while, I got sick of the sepia tone cinematography. Guess they needed it to hide the cheap sets and what looked like bodysuits on the Spartans.

There were no 'sets' in the traditional sense. The 'bodysuits' were the result of months and months of training.

2. The sets look cheap. The mountain looks fake, the sea where Xerxe's ships were destroyed looked like low grade CGI and hotgates looks like a poorly done set.

Again, the mountains didn't look fake to me and the grain was kicked up on the CGI to make it look like it was shot on location and not digitally added in. Not to mention it was all supposed to be a fantastical setting. I thought the ships being destroyed was one of the better parts and the CGI didn't bother me at all.

3. The music sounds like a rip off of Black Hawk Down's. IN fact I would prefer the old Nine Inch Nails drum track they used with the movie in the trailers.

Eh? Black Hawk Down sounded nothing like this. In fact I don't even remember much music in BHD and it certainly didn't have the 'Enya' like feel that 300 has.

4. The scenes of Leonidas' wife and son in the wheat field is ripped off from Gladiator.

Yeah, because only Gladiator can have wheat fields? I don't remember Crowe's wife getting news from a soldier that he was killed in Gladiator - not even close.

5. The film is strangely catered to fans of the graphic novel. Why? That is not even a cult comic. I was expecting Delios to give a speech about how every greek refused to let an old man sit during a conference, but the Spartans rose as one to let him sit. I was also expecting Stumbelios. Guess we will see that in the director's cut.

Are you kidding? A movie based on the GRAPHIC NOVEL caters too much to the fans of said GRAPHIC NOVEL? Think a little on that.

6. Also, the film cant decide whether it should be based on a true story or some fantasy flick. The unmasked Immortals and trolls look like Lord of the Rings rejects. I was half expecting the black robe evil King to turn up to fight Leonidas and his flynig lizard.

I think it makes up its mind fairly easily and picks and chooses what to base its fact on.

It will be better to make it more human, so we can root for Leonidas thinking reinforcements will come but we are saddened by his ultimate sacrifice.

Do you even know the story of Themopylae? Jesus man.

7. Why did the remaining Spartans allowed themselves to be slaughtered so easily by arrows in the end? After slaughtering thousands of Persians, I would expect them to go down fighting, taking down as many Persians as they can.

They were surrounded - they knew it was over and they did try to do something but when thousands of arrows are raining down on you there's little you can do but DIE.

8. If they wanted to do a film on Battle of Thermophylae, they should just adapt Steven Pressfield's book. No less inaccurate but at least thats entertaining.

Opinion - I found it highly entertaining because I could set aside the inaccuracies (which aren't even that big save for the impossible creatures).

9. All in all, great flick if you have never watched much movies. But I guess many Americans do not because this made like US$70 million over the weekend and this flick may just make Gerald Butler the next big thing.

Way to end it by insulting everyone who dares to like the movie

Seriously - you went to a movie called 300 based on a graphic novel of the same name and were disappointed because... gasp, it was like 300? What the hell were you expecting? Come back with some real criticisms rather than personal conjecture and arbitrary connections between similarly themed films. With your attitude I can only imagine you going into the theater already hating the film.

Corny dialogue?

Over-the-top acting?

Weak sub-plots?

Those are some questions we can work with - not some personal grudges you seem to hold against a film for being exactly as it was marketed.

[beast]

All filmed in a hangar with bluescreen. All CGI.

More importantly this was never meant to be a serious film on the matter, this was never meant to be another Gladiator, this was never meant to have an enjoyable story. This was a movie adaptation of a comic book, not a movie adaptation of the Battle of Thermopylae -- oh and anything by Frank Miller has a cult following.

For what you were expecting to see you clearly picked the wrong movie.

Movie adaptation of a comic book?

How odd.

If they want to do that, they should adapt some of his more famous comics like Dark Knight Returns (a bit dated) and his run on Daredevil (much superior than the movie).

[Brinbro]

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are closely related to Frank Miller's work on Year One.

No one is going to touch the Daredevil property after MSJ's take on that shit.

P.S. His work on 300 is a lot more popular than anything he did for Batman or Daredevil so what the fuck are you getting on about 'his more famous comics.' Are you just talking out your ass at this point? Shoo, just go away.

[beast]

Seriously - you went to a movie called 300 based on a graphic novel of the same name and were disappointed because... gasp, it was like 300? What the hell were you expecting? Come back with some real criticisms rather than personal conjecture and arbitrary connections between similarly themed films. With your attitude I can only imagine you going into the theater already hating the film.

Corny dialogue?

Over-the-top acting?

Weak sub-plots?

Those are some questions we can work with - not some personal grudges you seem to hold against a film for being exactly as it was marketed.

1. The months and months of hard work produced odd looking bodies. Bodies that emphasis on abs and little on the rest of the body.

2. The mountain looks fake. The temple on mountain looks even faker. Looks like cheap plastic. There is a reason it was shot in the dark.

3. If it was all fantastical, they should have taken more liberties and to hell with any semblance of historical reality. Towards the end, Leonidas would have been saved by a ship of elves and honbits from middle earth and Xerxes would get impaled by Leonidas' spear and he singlehandedly stopped a billion strong army invasion. The Spartans would then stop the Stargate opening to save Xerxes and Leonidas would overcome the UFO and use it to create a new empire and religion called Jedi.

Before that, Leonidas would be hailed as a king and he would go on to beat Alexander the Great in the sequel, 110 and he will marry Angelina Jolie as his new queen.

Hey if we are using artistic license and since its based on a comic book, let's go all the way. Its ridiculous enough as it is.

4. Fight scene in Black Hawk Down where Somalians were laying seige to the Americans trapped in the building. BTW Enya type singing was used by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard in Gladiator and that has been way overdone in so many movies that do not even have an ancient feel to it.

5. I dont think you get the idea of whats a rip off. If Leonidas was walking down the stairs and a bunch of Persians start shooting him with arrows and he retaliated by shooting them with arrows and at the same time he saved a baby whose mother let go of him in a stroller, I guess thats not a rip off of Untouchables because in that movie it happened in a train station and such ideas are public property.

6. My point is why cater to a very very small demographic. No matter how big any of his comics are, its still a very very small audience. I can understand catering to Lord of the Rings fanbase but cater to an audience of a comic that is very small anyway? Whats the point? How many fanboys can they depend on to go to the movie who demands to see a faithful page by page reproduction of the comic on the big screen.

This is not Spiderman where they must cater to the whims.

7. I know the story of Thermophylae. Do you?

No one is asking a faithful reproduction of the story. That will probably be box office poison without a lot of artistic rendition to cater to the public whims.

But 300 can still adopt many simple and fundamental elements of the story which they have done like the story of how a small army overcame (in the beginning) unsurmountable odds. They can squeeze out more drama and suspense without CGI and more money. Miller knew about that. But they would have to rely on something foreign to them: Good acting and direction.

8. Sigh. The Spartans were overcame because their flanks were exposed.

Before the final scene where thousands of arrows rained on Leonidas, many or all the Spartans were killed by arrows not arm to arm combat.

They should have done what they did in the start.. Hide behind their shields and fight when the arrows stopped. Of course they would be overcome once that bad English King rained arrows on his own men. Oops! Wrong film. But not a bad idea though.

BTW the arrow scenes are another rip-off of Hero.

At least Zhang Yimou knew enough to show the camera view from the arrow head's perspective.

7. Was it like 300? The comic was actually based on many historical source materials by Miller. BTW source materials here are not dungeons and dragons. The end result is not something 100% historically accurate but as close to it as it Miller can do it, knowing fans' taste. Other than the hunchback, there were no executioners with axes for arms. Wonder how he picks his nose. Hmm.

8. Gladiator which was 100% not based on any true story or semblance to reality is something 300 can aspire to. It at least does not insult one's intellgence or make one throw away one's disbelief and it made tons of money and won a few oscars to boot. 300 is not exactly X-men where some mysterious mutant deus ex machina is acceptable as part of the plot device.

[beast]

Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are closely related to Frank Miller's work on Year One.

No one is going to touch the Daredevil property after MSJ's take on that shit.

P.S. His work on 300 is a lot more popular than anything he did for Batman or Daredevil so what the fuck are you getting on about 'his more famous comics.' Are you just talking out your ass at this point? Shoo, just go away.

Since when is 300 popular? Dark Knight Returns is a must read for comic book fans whether you are into Batman or not. It together with Swamp Thing and Watchman revolutionise 80s comics. 300 is probably on the same tier as Sin City and (horrors) Ronin.

Agree Batman Begins have many elements of Year One. Pity Miller did not get any accolades or credit for it. In Hollywood, Miller is probably desperately shedding his Robocop 3 tag.

[NESK]

5. I dont think you get the idea of whats a rip off. If Leonidas was walking down the stairs and a bunch of Persians start shooting him with arrows and he retaliated by shooting them with arrows and at the same time he saved a baby whose mother let go of him in a stroller, I guess thats not a rip off of Untouchables because in that movie it happened in a train station and such ideas are public property.

de palma ripped that off a very famous scene anyway. i wish i could geek out and drop the name of the film but ive promised myself to forget everything i learned in film school as to not be a complete blowhard.

but yeah, 300 wasnt even trying to hide its similarities to any and all epic battle movies. and it was really fucking awful.

[beast]

de palma ripped that off a very famous scene anyway. i wish i could geek out and drop the name of the film but ive promised myself to forget everything i learned in film school as to not be a complete blowhard.

but yeah, 300 wasnt even trying to hide its similarities to any and all epic battle movies. and it was really fucking awful.

Was it some Hong Kong flick?

Guess when De Palma does it, he calls it paying homage!

[Brinbro]

Beast;

All of your criticisms might be valid if 300 (the movie) wasn't trying to be 300 (the graphic novel).

[beast]

Beast;

All of your criticisms might be valid if 300 (the movie) wasn't trying to be 300 (the graphic novel).

Even if it was the movie trying to be a comic, its still valid.

Did Road to Perdition and History of Violence insult their audience's intelligence by having Al Capone do a rambo on Tom Hank's character or Viggo Mortensen's character morph into the Punisher?

Like I said, Miller knew what he was writing and while it was not as well researched as say Alan Moore's From Hell (book not movie), you do not have outlandish things like mutated hunchback and rhinocerous. For the most part, it was something conceivably believable.

FYI Moore was so disgusted League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and I think V for Vendetta turned into something not originally envisaged by him, he wanted nothing to do with them. Both movies were bad though. LXG was slightly better than 300 in an Indiana Jones adventure way but V was so attrocious bad, puerile and juvenile trying to be some polemic critique on politics.

So if we establish 300 the movie was not trying to be 300 the comic, what was 300 the movie trying to be?

Answer: A schlocky 3rd grade B move which would put anything to make a buck. Not surprising when the directing, acting, editing etc etc are all 3rd grade.

Even if 300 the movie was trying to be 300 the comic, its still a badly done movie. Fans of such classics like Predator 2 which rips off tons of other movies in a low budget way would love this straight to video-store-discount-bin classic.

BTW that reminds me. The Spartans bodysuit in that sepia tone cinematography looks like they have the same colour and texture of the bodysuit the former wrestler Giant Gonzalez and even the tights Ultimate Warrior wore.

[Brinbro]

Even if it was the movie trying to be a comic, its still valid.

Not a movie trying to be a comic - a movie trying to the THE comic. 300 trying to be 300.

Did Road to Perdition and History of Violence insult their audience's intelligence by having Al Capone do a rambo on Tom Hank's character or Viggo Mortensen's character morph into the Punisher?

What the fuck does this even mean? You were insulted because a movie was faithful to its source?

Like I said, Miller knew what he was writing and while it was not as well researched as say Alan Moore's From Hell (book not movie), you do not have outlandish things like mutated hunchback and rhinocerous. For the most part, it was something conceivably believable.

Did you not get the part where Dilios was telling a story? Miller worked in Greek story-telling elements (ever read The Iliad or The Odyssey or The Aeneid or Greek plays) to create a larger-than-life story. You know when people tell stories they sometimes exaggerate? Same principle. Research is irrelevant because of different purposes (he wasn't trying to be well researched, but it's not hard if he wanted to).

FYI Moore was so disgusted League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and I think V for Vendetta turned into something not originally envisaged by him, he wanted nothing to do with them. Both movies were bad though. LXG was slightly better than 300 in an Indiana Jones adventure way but V was so attrocious bad, puerile and juvenile trying to be some polemic critique on politics.

Moore is an old, arrogant crab - LXG was terrible (you're complaining about 300's CGI?) at least V was extremely well made with a poignant social critique (not political, yet another movie where you totally didn't get it? looks like it). I enjoyed it a lot and couldn't give a shit less about the graphic novel.

So if we establish 300 the movie was not trying to be 300 the comic, what was 300 the movie trying to be?

What? Why would we establish that?

Answer: A schlocky 3rd grade B move which would put anything to make a buck. Not surprising when the directing, acting, editing etc etc are all 3rd grade.

Mkay.

Even if 300 the movie was trying to be 300 the comic, its still a badly done movie. Fans of such classics like Predator 2 which rips off tons of other movies in a low budget way would love this straight to video-store-discount-bin classic.

Yeah man, nothing in 300 is novel... where is that rolly eyes smiley?

BTW that reminds me. The Spartans bodysuit in that sepia tone cinematography looks like they have the same colour and texture of the bodysuit the former wrestler Giant Gonzalez and even the tights Ultimate Warrior wore.

What the hell is this body suit shit you keep talking about?

I'm done bumping this thread this argument is getting old and I'm sure annoying for anyone reading it (it was annoying even typing it). I don't even like the movie that much I just couldn't stand your totally misguided attitude.

[Tiranis]

I'm done bumping this thread this argument is getting old and I'm sure annoying for anyone reading it (it was annoying even typing it). I don't even like the movie that much I just couldn't stand your totally misguided attitude.

QFT. I didn't like the movie that much either, but I just can't stand when someone is talking out of their ass...

[superdupersang]

thread de-rail Ahoy!!

this spring will be all about the teenage mutant nija turtles

http://tmnt.warnerbros.com/

[TPR950H]

Xerxes was fuckin' HUGE. /thread

[beast]

I'm done bumping this thread this argument is getting old and I'm sure annoying for anyone reading it (it was annoying even typing it). I don't even like the movie that much I just couldn't stand your totally misguided attitude.

1. I think you dont get it. The movie WAS NOT faithful to its source. If Miller wanted to spice things up, he could throw in Spartans v his favourite ninjas or trolls or monsters.

He did not. Like I said, the comic was based on historical source materials.

2. No issue about Delios. It was never prominent in the comic as well.

3. You found V for Vendetta well-made and poignant social critique?

Oh my. Now I know where you are coming from.

It was awful and felt like it would never ever end.

A dud from the Golden Village folks. It exposes the Matrix as using cheap looking settings, read Australia.

4. A body suit is a rubberised suit people wear to show they got great upper body. It is in skin colour. It actually looked very very fake and no one will even wear it under their shirts. Too damn hot anyway.

[artificialsky]

the guy who did this film is directing watchmen, so i'm pretty stoked on that

[american_hearts]

Was it some Hong Kong flick?

Guess when De Palma does it, he calls it paying homage!

Battleship Potemkin

[Corbin Law]

critique a movie based on its face value

based on what it is

not what it falls short of

or what it is trying to be

its harder to do that

than to rely on external reference points

to base your critique around

[chronoaug]

Corbin law is right. Beast and the guys sucking the dick of the graphic novel have no real point. Who cares if it's not true or perfectly true to the graphic novel. If the movie isn't good then who cares? For all i know the graphic novel could've sucked, but now people aren't allowed to like movies like that because we don't understand how true to the original it is. Who cares if it's true to the original or exactly to history. Beast doesn't even seem to know the history behind this anyway so i don't know what he's talking about considering he seems to love gladiator which has to be one of the more historically inaccurate movies that hit the big time.

Historical accuracy does matter with certain movies like Gladiator and the hbo series Rome. However, with things like 300, it's not supposed to be realistic or anything. It's just supposed to be a really violent over the top movie that people like because it's based on a graphic novel(which most people use as a crutch to like movies because it was based on something). I'll see it, but i'm just expecting a blockbuster type violent movie that better entertain me for 2 hours.

[englandmj7]

Ha hah. This is great:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1598886,00.html?cnn=yes